Independent

Just last week for the 4th of July celebration, it was my duty to pick up some beer for a friends barbecue party. I went to a local Binny’s here in Chicago and I walked a little bit past the beer section and stumbled upon the cocktail section. The massive amount of bitters, glasses and […]

Hey Bartender

Being a horror fan, I often find myself in discussions with other horror fans about what movies we may have recently watched, and unfortunately more often than not we compare notes on what we disliked about those films. Watching a lot of independent horror films naturally leads to these kinds of conversations for horror fans […]

Cross Bearer

“Giant mutated animal” movies have made something of a comeback over the last few years thanks to the efforts of the SyFy Channel and their production cohorts, Roger Corman and The Asylum. As goofy fun as some of those films have been, though, it’s rare that any of them actually recall their ancient ancestors in […]

The Giant Spider

The independent horror film scene, perhaps more than independent film in general, often presents the dedicated fan with a peculiar problem. Legions of low-budget horror films are made every year, many of them barely-competent takes on the standard zombie or slasher film, and it’s tough to figure out who’s making movies in the hopes of […]

The Synthetic Man

Nature is powerful. Many would agree that the world around us possesses special power, and that the aspects of nature that we are oblivious or accustomed to may possess more power than we are capable of understanding. Upstream Color is a beautifully bizarre exploration into the unknown. It addresses absentmindedness and unexplained occurrences and coincidences […]

Upstream Color

Wuss (2011), written and directed by Clay Liford, stars Nate Rubin (Mitch) as a young english teacher in a public school wrought with, as the character Maddie Worth (Alicia Anthony) would put it, “miscreants.” It is a tale that easily resonates with almost anyone, for it touches on many a broad topic from mere high […]

Wuss

Chloe is a struggling musician who has just moved to Nashville, Tennessee to roll the dice and try to make it as a professional singer/songwriter. In the midst of trying to get any venue in Nashville to hear her out and give her a shot, she meets Brandon (Jason Bukey), another musician just trying to […]

The 10 Commandments of Chloe

Dead In France is a film by Kris McManus in collaboration with Jack Hillgate. Together they wrote the film and Kris McManus essentially comprised the main production crew on the set. As well as writing and directing this film McManus was also the Director of Photography and editor. To say the least, that is quite a lot […]

Dead In France

It’s been nine years since John Waters’s last film, “A Dirty Shame,” which describes the state of affairs for his fans, for whom roadshow productions of “Hairspray” the musical just aren’t the same. However, if you’d like to make a visit to a perfect facsimile of Watersland, then “First Period” is the movie that Mr. […]

First Period

Three longtime friends: Sam (Nathan Phillips), Blake (Zachary Knighton; ABC’s Happy Endings), and Katherine (Shannon Lucio) all seem inseparable. Sam and Katherine are in a relationship, but there’s an intimacy they share with Blake that makes him never seem like a third wheel. All is well. Fast forward 3 years and now Blake and Katherine […]